Future skills: action plan

How we will develop Scotland's Future Skills Action Plan in the coming years

There is much to celebrate in Scotland's skills system, both in terms of its existing success and how it is already responding to the ambitions of Scotland's Future Skills Action Plan. These are strong foundations to build upon. As we develop the Plan we will seek to develop appropriate labour market information to enhance our understanding of its strengths and weaknesses, and to more accurately assess our progress.

Creating the environment to deliver Scotland's future skills

We must create a culture of collective investment in Scotland's workforce. This can be achieved through our public investment in the skills system, and the investment employers make in their employees. We can unlock this potential by ensuring close alignment of the next phase of the Scotland's Future Skills Action Plan with delivery of the Strategic Board's Strategic Plan, including the Business Models and Workplace Innovations mission.

This will allow us to fully explore how we create more capacity for leadership and management within our businesses to develop the skills of their, and Scotland's, future workforce.

In line with our ambitions around Fair Work and the Fair Work Convention's principles, we will ensure the views and needs of workers are recognised. This includes their experience of both in-work training and engagement with the skills system, to inform upskilling and retraining opportunities.

We recognise the importance of a future workforce which has the ability to be increasingly agile and successful in the labour market. We will ensure that our future skills programmes provide individuals with accredited learning and qualifications that support successful transition in the labour market.

Equipping our young people with the skills required to fulfil their potential remain a key priority, and we re-affirm our long term commitment to Developing Scotland's Young Workforce, and the important role it will continue to play in creating Scotland's workforce in future.

As our skills system evolves to meet Scotland's future skills needs, its ability to demonstrate a clear contribution to the Scottish Government's strategic outcomes will be central to our ambitions for the system.

We will ensure collaboration and aligned delivery across all elements of the skills system, to ensure they support our ambitions to improve Scotland's productivity, equality, wellbeing and sustainability.

Who will be involved

The development of the second phase of Scotland's Future Skills Action Plan will have stakeholder engagement at its core, to ensure we critically assess and develop the policies and solutions required to deliver Scotland's future skills.

Understanding employer, worker and learner experience of our current system will be crucial, as will their ability to articulate which skills they - and the wider economy - may require in the years to come. Similarly, we will engage with universities, colleges and others offering education and training, to identify new areas for collaboration and establish how the skills system can deliver the Plan's ambitions.

We will also engage with learners and workers to understand the pathways and types of training that can support their participation and progression in the labour market.

Our agencies will remain critical partners, particularly in regard to long-term labour market planning, improving skills alignment and placing meta-skills at the heart of the skills system.